Everything He Knew
by Icy Pheonix
Summary: What if Yusuke was never a spirit detective? What if demons didn't exist? And what if the last two years were a mere dream? -One chapter left!
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: For this chapter and all chapters that follow, I own neither the plotline nor the characters nor anything else of Yu Yu Hakusho. However, the plotline of this story is my own and so are any characters that do not ever appear in YYH, which makes them original and mine.**

**Horror Beyond Belief**

"_THERE'S TOO MANY!" Yusuke yelled frantically to Hiei, firing his spirit gun at the quickly advancing row of demons quickly surrounding the team of him, Hiei, Kurama, Kuwabara, and Genkai. "WE CAN'T FIGHT THEM ALL!"_

"_YUSUKE, WE HAVE TO!" Kuwabara's panicked voice sounded out. "WE HAVE TO LIVE! WE HAVE TO KILL THEM!"_

"_Remember what I taught you, boy." Genkai said harshly, her voice trembling slightly out of fear. "You have to believe that we can win or we'll never get through this!" Genkai trailed off, as her golden energy blasts, usually so deadly, merely greatly angered about three of the beastly creatures with their long whipping tentacles. She continued to attack valiantly. "Help the others! I'm okay!"_

_Yusuke looked for the other 3. Kuwabara, who had yelled moments ago, was nowhere to be seen. Hiei, ever-silent, nodded at him and vanished from his right side and came down upon a single demon about to swallow Genkai, it's gaping mouth wide open, landing on it's head area, narrowly missing the hole. He began to violently slash at it, causing it pain but having no effect. They ferociously wrestled in the air._

_There was a strangled yell from behind him, tearing his attention away. Yusuke whirled around to see Kurama being gripped by a huge slimy tentacle. Kurama, green eyes wide in panic, and missing his rose whip, fired random death plant seeds into the flesh—slime—of the monster, but the seeds were simply absorbed by the demon's power and disintegrated upon impact. Kurama tried to struggle as a last resort, but the slime simply oozed up his thin body and began to cover him. Completely helpless, it inched towards his head and entered through his mouth. Kurama's eyes rolled up in his head._

"_KURAMA!" Yusuke screamed, and fired blue energy blasts into the demon's flesh, but it did about as much as Genkai's did. Nothing. Yusuke kept firing, feeling his strength fading with every blast, but the blasts were still absorbed by the gross yellow creature. It clenched Kurama hard, dropping his broken, severely slimed body on the ground, and turned toward Yusuke. Yusuke's blasts dimmed in power as he began to run out of spirit energy._

_Yusuke felt something slimy wrap around him from behind. In the midst of the chaos, he had forgotten his own guard. The slime shot up him and slid inside his mouth as he opened it to scream for something to help, making him violently sick as it oozed down his throat, suffocating him…_

_It was over. They had truly, finally lost. Yusuke shut his eyes and waited for death…_

Lost, lost, lost, lost, lostlostlostlostlost… 

"It's working." A deep male voice said.

"It's what!"

"Atsuko Urameshi, your boy is waking up!"

"WHAT? YUSUKE?" A woman's shrill voice yelled, right in my ear.

Some part of me heard this, but I was thinking jumbled and confused thoughts, and my brain didn't quite register what the man and woman were talking about.

All I knew was that I had to save Kurama. Kuwabara. Genkai. Hiei.

I vaguely felt a hand on my shoulder, which shook me hard. "YUSUKE?"

It was the woman. She had a cool, thin hand. I didn't know how I knew, but the information was there just the same.

Slowly, I opened his eyes to a plain room that I thought had to be part of a house. No, it couldn't be. There was ivory wallpaper, ivory beds with sick, pale people in them, ivory tables with surgical tools on them, and many men and women in ivory jackets. My eyes opened wider, and I saw one of those men standing over me. He had small eyes and very tanned skin, from the sliver of face that wasn't hidden behind a white mask.

I rotated my head. To my right, a rather tall woman stood. Exactly where Hiei had stood. Where was Hiei? And who was this woman? She had long brown hair and a thin face and was dressed in a skimpy green shirt with jeans. She peered over me anxiously, as though not trusting herself about what she was seeing.

I sat up and looked at them both. They seemed to be holding their breath.

Something told me they were waiting for me to talk. I cleared my throat and realized there was something hard on my mouth that was preventing movement. I peeled it off and saw that it was an oxygen mask. Disgusted, I dropped it down on the bed next to me.

I studied the woman some more. She looked very familiar. Where had I seen her before? And more importantly, where was I? I had no recollection of ever seeing this room before.

"Where…am…I?" I asked, and I then noticed that my voice was a low rumble. It surely had not been that way when I was fighting alongside the others. Where was I? What had happened to my voice? When had it grown so rusty and aged?

At once, as soon as I said something to prove that I was indeed alive, the familiar woman jumped up and flung her arms around me. I was really too shocked to do _anything_. I just sat there and the woman began sobbing into my shoulder. I sat, rigid as a board, blinking, and I watched the man in the white coat. His eyes told me he was smiling. Why was he smiling?

"Where am I?" I asked again, louder and more confidently, sounding a lot more like the person I thought I was. "WHERE AM I?" A sense of urgency was growing in me as I grew more and more awake. I threw the woman off of me, almost tipping her right over backwards, and she regained her balance just in time by grabbing onto the edge of the white bed I was in and stared at me in shock, leaning on the bed. The white man's smile had gone and was replaced by concern.

"Here, Mrs. Urameshi, let me help you—"

_Urameshi? My last name?_ I suddenly realized where I'd seen her before. The man started to help her up. My mom. "Mom?" I asked.

My mother stared at me, and her shocked tearstained face turned once again to incredible joy. "Oh, darling—" She started to wrench her arm out of the man's hand again, but he caught her and held her back.

I stared at him, starting to get really pissed off. "Get off my mom." I told him angrily.

He reluctantly complied, and my mom threw herself at me again, and I tried to hold her back, but my arm was so skinny and pale and weak. I couldn't believe it. I used to be so incredibly strong!

So, having won, she hugged me again, and when the man glared at her, she stopped and bounced on her feet, smiling at me. "You're alive!"

I glared at him right back, ignoring her. "Where am I? Where're the others?" My low voice startled me again.

The man removed his mask and forced a smile with crooked teeth at me while keeping his distance. "In answer to your first question, you're at the Tokyo Hospital. Who are these others you mean?"

I suddenly realized what had happened. The Earthen Tokyo Hospital. Somehow, inexplicably, we'd been rescued. We had all survived. It was a true miracle.

"Where're Hiei, Kurama, Kuwabara, and Genkai?" I asked excitedly. "Are they here too?" I had to confirm it. It all seemed too good to be true.

The man gave me a funny look. "Who?"

I blinked, confused. "Of course they're here." Maybe I just had to give their last names and he'd know. "Hiei Jaganshi, Kur—Shuuichi Minamino, Genkai…" I didn't know her last name. "And Kazuma Kuwabara."

He looked at me, and then gave a coded look to a passing nurse. She came over and he repeated the names to her. She nodded and left to go out of a door next to a great potted plant.

My mother stepped forward and smiled at me in the same fake way the man did. "Who are these people?" She asked quietly.

By now, I was experiencing a mental breakdown. They _had_ to be here. They had to. "The people I was fighting with! When you guys rescued me, you must have found all of us, right?"

"When you were hit by the car?" The man asked me. "You were the only one hit—"

"No!" I said in a loud voice, and a nurse from the other side of the room shushed me. "When you found us defeated by those demon forces!"

The man and woman stared at me, and then, understanding crossed his face. He looked at me and couldn't even conjure up a smile. He just looked really tired of me. "Why don't you tell us what happened, son? From the beginning. Whatever you remember."

Gladly, I started off. "Well, I was the top punk at Sarayashiki Junior High, and then I was hit by a car, and Botan rescued me—" God, I'm already out of breath. What has happened to me to make me so weak? "She took me to Koenma, the spirit god, and he made me his spirit detective paired with Kuwabara, Hiei, Kurama, and Genkai." I looked at them meaningfully. "I took on all sorts of tasks. The Dark Tournament, random demons, Genkai's training…Then, last I remember, we were fighting a spirit world invasion of demons and we were getting creamed, and I woke up here."

The man looked at me, and I suddenly connected that because he was in a hospital, he must be a doctor. I also realized that he had whipped off a pen and paper from one of those tables next to me and was scribbling furiously on this tiny little sheet. "And how long did this take?"

"I guess…about two years, if you add it all up."

"I see." He wrote even faster.

"What does it even matter? Where are they?" I leaned up closer and took the front of his shirt in my right fist, pulling him closer to me. The man dropped his papers, which scattered all over me, and I pulled him so close that we were nose to nose, really straining my skinny arm. "Where have you put them? Take me to them _now_."

My mother made to pry us off, and being so weak, I had no resistance to put up. She laid me back on the bed and the doctor brushed himself off and snorted and picked up his papers. Then, he sat on the edge of my bed and rubbed his forehead. He waited for a few minutes, and when my patience was growing so thin that it was half nonexistent, the nurse came back. She frowned, shaking her head and muttering in a low voice to him. She showed him a paper with printed things on them. I was too far away to read it.

He looked the paper over, nodded, and dismissed her to take care of someone else in a bed with a huge tank hooked up to a hole in his neck. He sighed and told me something that truly turned me upside down. "Yusuke, how do I say this? These—these people you keep talking about don't exist. There's no record of them at the hospital or anywhere else. Nurse Yumiko just showed me the results."

I blinked. "But that's not possible." I said, with such strong conviction. "I was with them a few minutes ago. I can tell you that!"

He sighed again. "But that can't be possible. None of your story can be possible."

"It's not story, it's truth!" I said loudly. "Of course it's possible! It really happened!"

"It didn't, Yusuke." My mother cut in, turning my face towards her own serious one. "You haven't been fighting any demons, or being a spirit detective, for two years. You've been in a _coma_ for two years."

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Evil cliffy! Do you like this new story? Do you think I should continue? Please review!


	2. Chapter 2

Again, if you want a disclaimer, you can turn right to chapter one. Thank you to all the nice reviewers! Heh I'm quite the reviewer nut… I'm sorry that this chapter is almost exactly like the first. I'll make chapter 3 different, though!

**Chapter 2: More Hospital Madness**

I just sat and stared at my mom for a while. My previous personality told me that I should say something rude right now, but nothing came to mind. Only shock was present. There was nothing that I could say to something like that.

_Coma, coma, coma, coma, comacomacomacomacoma…_

I shook my head, and I succeeded in getting a bit of rage to well up in my chest. "I was _not_ in a coma. I was just up. I was fighting demons, you assholes!" There. It seemed I was getting better at being…well, myself. How was I so out of practice if I'd only fallen asleep? All I cared about was getting back to the way I was. "I don't know why I'm in a bed right now, or why you lied and said Hiei and the others didn't exist, but I will find out."

I swung my legs over the side of my bed that they weren't on, and stood up shakily. I was shocked when I looked at the ground. It wasn't only my voice or my arms that were different. I was about six inches taller from my original 5 ½ feet. What was happening to me?

I lost my balance out of stunned shock and I couldn't even hold myself up. I had to plunk right back down on the bed. I was too heavy for my skinny legs. Why was I so skinny? I was just up and walking three seconds ago!

Now, I felt extremely frustrated. I tried to stand up again, but I couldn't do it. My legs gave way before I even got off.

"Why? Why am I like this? Why?" I kept trying to shove myself up.

My mother stared at me in a sad way, and the doctor gave her a meaningful look. "Baby, when you were hit by that car, you…you went into a coma. You've been in a coma for 2 whole years. We didn't ever think you'd wake up—"

Two whole years. I'd been in a coma for two whole years, she said. There was no way that was even possible. I knew it couldn't have all been just a dream. I couldn't have been. I had felt such real emotion through all of my battles. When I trained with that old hag Genkai. When I fought Rando. The Dark Tournament. When I beat Tiguro. Kurama, Hiei, Kuwabara…Keiko. And…the final battle that sent me here. Somehow, inexplicably, the battle had transported me home.

This time, the man with the mask looked at me and took off that little paper doctor mask. "It's only natural that you're in denial, Yusuke. It's a hard thing, to wake and discover that your life was all a dream."

"It was not a dream!" I half-yelled, startling a badly-burned patient out of his sleep in the next bed.

He shook his head and rubbed his temples. He then turned to my mom. "Mrs. Urameshi-san, your boy's muscles are very soft, and he'll have problems functioning physically for a while. I propose that Yusuke start with a wheelchair, and we work from there."

I had to do a double take, and so did my mother. "I'm fine!" I protested. I tried to stand up again and failed. He and my mother ignored me.

My mother blinked. "Why? Can't he walk?"

"He can barely move. He's been inert for so long that his muscles have grown extremely weak from a significant lack of calcium. He won't be able to get around for a while."

Ah. That made sense. Well, it would have if it were true that I had been in a coma for two years. Which I hadn't been. These quacks were totally wrong.

"How long will he need one?" She asked.

I hated how they were talking about me as though I wasn't there, but I had no energy to tell them so. Instead, I sat back on the bed. Walking had defeated me…for the moment.

"About 4-5 weeks, plus supplementary exercises. They will be conducted here."

"Wait…here? What's the point of bringing him home, then?"

He blinked. "He won't be going home. I was just alerting you, the parent, to it because we need you to sign some forms. Just saying that you recognize the procedures we need to employ. Because Yusuke is underage, we need the parent's consent to begin rehabilitation."

She looked at me, and then back to the doctor. "Just do whatever you can to make him better."

"Okay. Come with me, and we'll put it in writing." He turned around and led her out of the room. She paused just outside the door to look back at me and smile. I couldn't smile back at her. I just stared.

When the ivory door banged shut after them, I just laid my head back on the pillow. Man, this sucked. I couldn't get up. I could barely move my body. I tested lifting my right arm up. That was okay. Hardly any problems. I reached it over to the table with silver instruments on it. I picked up one that looked like a pair of scissors. I could hold it all right.

The left arm was a little harder, but when I grabbed a pair of tweezers, it still seemed that I could do basic functions with it. Plus, I was a righty, so that probably had something to do with it.

I then tried my right leg. I can safely say I had never had such trouble with such a simple motion. I could move it from side to side on the bed, but I couldn't lift it up. The left leg was just as bad, if not a little worse. How did I rule Sarayashiki High if I couldn't even do something as simple as this?

I pushed my leg, harder and harder, and still, it wouldn't move. I tried again, and again, and again. Still nothing. What is wrong with my body? Did I come down with polio?

I pushed it again. "GOD DAMN IT!" I screamed suddenly. I actually grabbed my ankle with my arms and started shaking my leg violently. I thrashed it from side to side, up and down. And my leg could barely feel it. I screamed again, with no words, just a huge scream.

A short nurse of about 16 finally ran up to me, and yelled in my ear something that I couldn't make out. Then she started to shake me by the shoulders, rattling my thin neck. I finally stopped trying to strangle my leg, and turned to her, panting out of rage and exhaustion. "What?"

She looked at me, almost fearfully. "What are you doing?"

"My goddamn leg won't move." I was starting to get back into the spirit of my personality. "I WANT IT TO GODDAMN MOVE!" I screamed, right in her face.

The nurse flinched visibly, and I smirked. Her face was simply priceless. She glared when she saw the smile. "Young man, shaking your leg will not revive it. You have to exercise it to make it work."

"I don't feel like exercising. Make it work some other way."

"I can't." She said through clenched teeth. And then, she just turned around and left.

I blinked, and screamed after her, "GET THE HELL BACK HERE!"

She flinched again but continued to walk away.

"I SAID TURN AROUND THIS INSTANT!"

She whirled around, her face very red. "What?"

"Get over here." I ordered her. Some patients turned to stare at me.

She blinked, but maybe it was because of my tone that she obeyed me. She went to stand in front of me, one of her eyes twitching. "Yes? Do you need something?"

"Yeah, I need to walk."

"You…_can't._"

"Fix my leg, damn it!"

"Get this through your head! You can't walk and you won't be able to for about 4 weeks! You are so incredibly weak—"

At this point, I lunged forward. Something came up inside me, I swear. I grabbed the collar of her white top and pulled her face inches from mine.

I glared at her, rage coursing through me. "I…am…not…weak."

She stared at me in horror, then batted my hand away. I am ashamed to say she succeeded. I couldn't hold on. I recoiled and stared at my hand. Once that hand could take on 4 different guys at once. Now, it can't even hold a very sarcastic maid.

I am going to die here; of not being able to walk or hurt pride.

The nurse wore a face of hatred like that I had never seen before. "Do that again and I'll slip something in your drink that is NOT a painkiller!"

And the scary thing is, I got a major vibe that she was actually going to do it, too. "That isn't a very nurse-like thing to do to a patient."

"Then don't grab me! Jeez, you little…"

"Azuru, is there a problem?" The doctor had returned with my mom. They both stared at the little nurse.

"Yes, Azuru, is there?" I growled at her. She sent me a death glare.

"No!" She huffed, and turned and walked away, her black hair flying behind her.

The doctor stared after her. And so did I. I got the feeling that I knew her from somewhere. But the memory was sort of milky, like my mom's.

I shook my head. "Well?" I asked him.

"You are now authorized by your mother to stay here for about another month. We need to conduct research and help you regain the use of your limbs."

"What! Do I get any say in this?"

"No. This is for your own good."

I tried to stand up again, ending once again in failure. This time, I really lost it. "GOD DAMN IT, ALL THIS BLOODY SHIT IS SERIOUSLY PISSING ME OFF! LET ME OUT OF THIS GODDAMN DUMP BEFORE I KILL SOMEBODY! I NEED TO FIND THE OTHERS!"

I took a breath, readying myself for another rant. Then, someone snapped a mask over my face. I didn't think, and I, being a stupid moron, breathed it right in. As soon as I did, I felt very calm, and I just faded away.

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I woke up suddenly, gasping for air. Thankfully, when I woke up this time, no strange masked people were floating over me, and I was feeling much more alert.

God damn it, they gassed me! Jeez, can't a guy even yell anymore and get away with it? What is up with all these damn rules?

I was still in my bed. I had no longer a mask over my nose and mouth, which was good, and it seemed to be nighttime. Not like I had a window or anything, but every other patient was asleep when I woke up.

I stared around me. Same blinding room. Same silver tables with surgical instruments. Wow, where did that terminology come from?

I made extra sure that there were no nurses around, like that Azuru sadist, and I eased myself up out of the thin covers. I swung my legs over the side, still very silently. I was sure that not even my own mother was on my side, so I was going to escape if it killed me. Which, given my condition, it probably would. But I was not going to be stopped by anything. I was going to get out and learn what had happened to me.

I tried to stand. I don't even know why I even bothered anymore. My legs turned to jelly instantly, but I miscalculated the distance, and instead of falling back on the bed like I always had, I fell forward, landing flat down. I just barely caught myself before my nose mashed into the ground.

At that point, I _knew_ it was hopeless. I just couldn't admit that to myself.

I seriously think that the next few weeks never happened. I certainly never had any memory of them later. I only recall a lot of yelling, a lot of threats, and they gassed me a whole lot more. I was back to being…being _me_ again…a serious problem child with no goals in life. I let them know exactly what I thought of them. I was incredibly rude, violent, and crazy, pulling a prank every chance I got, usually on Azuru. There was once that I swapped all her surgical tools with worms. How I got worms…now there's a story. In any case, I was left in the hospital for far longer than I would have been because of her.

I would show EVERYONE when I got out of that hospital.

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Sorry, guys, I just don't know where I'm going to go with this. If anyone has any ideas, please share them with me! I knew I shouldn't have picked a male main character…


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: The Blah Blah Chapter**

"Miss Urameshi-san, we are proud to inform you that there are no persisting health conditions with your son as a result of the therapy. He'll be slightly weak for a while, but that should come to pass."

"Not with the patient, anyway." Azuru bites out. Heh. She must still remember her twisted elbow. And her bruised knee, and her torn-out hair. She's incapable of forgiving, that woman.

"So, he is now officially discharged from this hospital." The tall doctor continues, and my mom's face breaks into a huge grin.

"That's great! Give 'im to me!" The three of them all enter through the doors to look at me.

"Yeah, get me outta here!"

The tall doctor nods at Azuru, and with a potent glare on her face, she opens the handcuffs on both of my wrists and ankles, connecting me to the bed. I _earned_ these. My mother gives them a strange look. "I ensure that the measures were quite necessary, Miss Urameshi-san," The doctor states.

She just laughs. Wow. In six weeks, Mom looks even worse from all the alcohol than before. "That's my boy!" She _giggles_. Ugh.

As the last handcuff is undone, I spring out of bed so fast that I nearly kick Azuru in the head. _This_ is what it means to be young. I stretch contentedly, admiring my height and looking down at my mom and Azuru and about on eye-level with the doctor.

"Get me the fuck outta this dump!" I yell happily. Mom smiles, gives me a pat on the back, and leads me out the door, down the bleached hallways, until I see the door, and charge out ahead of her, flinging the doors open and hearing them crash behind me.

"I'M BACK!" I scream, spreading out my arms wide for the public to know that the guy, the extorter, the drinker, the smoker, the jackass is BACK. Finally! Heheh. Until I find out what's going on here, I can at least enjoy myself somewhat.

All I win are funny looks from some very confused adults. I realize I'm now a foot taller than everyone here. Could those looks be awe at such a giant I am? Or maybe they just can't believe I'm back.

I start strutting down the sidewalk, just as I used to. I smirk at random passerby, but instead of the fear and awe I used to receive, I get kind of weird glances running up and down my body. Interesting. Maybe I need to put someone back in their place. I begin walking up a darkened alley. This is the place for fights.

"Hey, punk?" Someone grunts from behind me. What perfect timing. I smirk and slowly turn around, so that they can see I'm the real thing, the man with the iron punch, the man that held Sarayashiki Junior High in an unending state of terror. The one that defeated Huge-Head Daisuke Motomoto, and countless demons after him. Apparently, this bunch of three strong guys doesn't know who I am. They don't react when they see my face. They only smirk wider. But why? I mean, sure my hair isn't gelled, but even through the bangs, they should be able to tell that it's me.

"You got any cash on ya, dude? Give it up."

"You wanna fight me for it?" I sneer at them, and before they can answer, throw at a punch at the nearest one's sneering face.

_He blocks me_, knocking my hand to the side. What the hell? I send my left hook shooting for his teeth, and the man dodges. I can see his right hand coming up to meet my stomach. Now all I have to do is be a little quicker—

THUD. Before I can even react, the man mashes his fist into my gut. I melt to the gray cement ground, coughing blood. Holy Crap, am I still in a hospital gown? NO! I will not die in a hospital gown! I swing my left leg around in a crescent strike, and I make contact with his ankle, but the force is just too weak and he keeps his balance easily. My eyes widen in realization. These guys are actually too tough for me. It can't be and yet it is.

I fake a left strike and spin around, my right hand to my aching gut, and try to run away, before one of the goons jumps on top of me, pinning me flat to the ground, and slaps around the back of my head. The man that hung around in the shadows fully comes into view, in front of me.

Speak of the devil. It's a man with a grostesquely huge face, curly dark hair, and 4 feet tall.

He glares at me with a wicked smirk, and kicks me hard in the head. _I beat this guy before, I know I did! What the hell is happening to me_?

"So you thought you could run, eh, punk? Well, no one messes with Motomoto, you got that?" Another hard kick in the mouth sends pain shooting through my whole head. "Take his money and leave him. He's just a scrawny punk."

Rummage, rummage, rummage. "He's in a hospital gown, boss. No pockets."

"Damn!" Motomoto hisses. "Fine then, let's split." The guys run off me and follow their leader, out of the alley and into the light.

I blink in horror. This is not me. Now I'm even MORE sure that this isn't real. First they try to tell me that my entire _life_ in the past two years was a dream, and now I can't fight to save my own neck.

I need to find out what's happened before something even worse comes to pass. What will they say about me now? The infamous Yusuke Urameshi got beat by a ton of _girls._ How am I ever going to live this down?

I stand up. Ah, my stomach and my head hurts, a lot, but at least they didn't damage my beautiful, walking legs. I glance around me on all sides. I can't take on anyone else like this. I just need to remember where my house is and recuperate there.

Ignoring the pain, and failing, I exit the alley through the back way and immediately hear voices. Shit! Sounds like another group of thugs. I see a door and duck into it, closing it as quietly as I can behind me. I look around. I'm in a very clean blue house. This looks almost familiar. Oh, come on, I know this!

_Keiko._

She's staring right across at me, coming out of the kitchen, in the process of shutting the sliding door. Wow…she looks so different. She's grown out her hair again and has it in those pigtails that she did before her hair was burned off when she saved me. She also has a different uniform from the Sarayashiki junior high, no longer blue but dark burgundy. She's still…pretty, though.

"Keiko." I say, stretching out my arms. "Keiko, you don't know what it's like to see a familiar face…"

"…AUUUGHHHHHHHH! WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN HERE? WHAT DO YOU WANT? GO AWAY THIS INSTANT!"

"But…Keiko?"

She takes the frying pan in both hands and slams it down over my head. _WHAM, WHAM, WHAM_. "GOOD THING YOU'RE ALREADY-_WHAM_-DRESSED FOR THE HOSPITAL, YOU BEAST!-_WHAM_-GET OUT!" _WHAM, WHAM, WHAM_.

"OKAY!" I yell, ducking her final blows and heading out into the alley. Thank God there's no more thugs out this way. What a headache…why was Keiko so afraid? It's almost like she didn't recognize me or something! But I've only gotten, taller, I swear! She could still tell, right?

Okay. You know what? I need to get home and see what's wrong here. And why everyone is fucking HITTING me!

I crawl out of the alley, into the broad street, and stand up slowly. Hm. Now I'm getting looks of revulsion as well as strange ones about my hospital gown. That is now bloodstained. Ew. I shake my hair into my face, and carefully read the street signs. Dude, when did I get this much hair? Hm…I turn left on this street, oh, there's Keiko. THERE'S KEIKO! RUN AWAY!

I run down random streets, trying to lose her, when I realize I've run directly to my house. I look it up and down. Definitely mine. Thank God.

I fling open the door and shut it behind me, and I am immediately greeted by a drunken young woman, gazing at the television without really seeing it.

"How ya doing?" Mom slurs out. "Haven't seen…you…in a while…"

I shake my head in disgust and move to the bathroom. I really need to pee. I shut the door behind me and see a person in the dinky old mirror.

It's a person, looking in his late teens, with a mass of shaggy black hair in a mess around his face. His mouth is bleeding freely, he has funny bumps on his head, and he has small brown eyes.

It's a spectre. Somehow, a demon has hunted me down and is living in my mirror. Damn it, I really need Kurama right now! I back away slowly, and so does the spectre. I draw back my fist and hit the mirror with all my might, cracking it. The broken pieces of the spectre fall to the floor and into the sink below.

I think I killed it. Ow, my hand! There's just no way that was me. I am a fifteen year old kid with clean black hair and an incredibly handsome face.

Almost fearfully, I pick up a shard of the mirror and dare to look into it.

_It's my face._ I'm…I'm an adult. I look at myself, and wash my face in the dirty sink to get off the blood. I look back at myself. I…I look a little like I remember, but my skin is a pasty yellow, as though I haven't been outside for a while, I really look like I was just in a fight, I have a great big blue bib from the hospital, and my hair is too long. I pick up the scissors next to the decaying bar of soap and chop off the most annoying bits so I can see out from my eyes. That's better. I look more like I used to now.

Blinking and wondering what's wrong, I leave the bathroom and go into my little room. I wrinkle my nose at the incredible smell of beer. In my absence, my room seems to have been used as my mother's drinking pantry, filled with smashed bottles and old cases of alcohol. I can't see the floor. Carefully avoiding broken glass, I search through the bottles to see if I can find my bed or any kind of clothing. I find one of the two, and see that old stupid green suit I used to wear.

I pull of the hospital gown and tug the suit on, and have no trouble with the pants, although they seem to have become cutoffs. My ankles show painfully. The shirt is harder, but I get it on and stretch it tight across my chest to button the buttons. Man, my body is so skinny, but it's _big…_I stuff on two ordinary sandals on my overlarge feet.

Grumbling to myself about this damn dream I'm stuck in, I leave the room, watching my mom gulping down another beer, and walk out the door. Once out in the street, I don't attract nearly as many funny looks, although several people's eyes wander to my ultra-short pants and my too-tight shirt. I flip them all off.

Then, as fate would have it, I see a girl form my school. She's called Natsuki or something, and she's one of Keiko's friends. Good. Maybe I can get her to tell me where Keiko is so I can prove to her that it's really me and that I didn't die in that demon attack.

I start to tail her, the tight sandals grating uncomfortably against my feet. Hm. But that girl is terrified of me. It might be smart to just follow her and see if she leads me to Keiko or somewhere else important.

I keep that up for a while, flipping people off all the way that eye me up. Does no one have any respect since I've been gone? I follow the girl, keeping a safe distance, and then see her make a sharp turn suddenly. I dart to catch up, and then notice that the girl has disappeared inside a huge high school. Hm? I look at it, and through the large windows see tons of kids in dark red uniforms. Burgundy, you might say. Like the one Keiko and, come to think of it, the one that girl was wearing too.

I stare up at it. Somewhere in there, I'll find the only girl that can understand what's going on. Keiko Yukimura. Then I can find everyone else and find out what's happened. Yay, futuristic summaries.

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**I'm staying true to my 3-page-chapter-limit. Next chapter is the school episode.**


	4. Chapter 4

This is awesome, all these reviews so early on in the story! Please keep doing it!

**Chapter 4:**

I strut into the school, flinging open the doors with a crash. Man, what is with all the funny looks people are giving me today? Jeez, no respect, right? I mean, sure I'm wearing too-short pants and a too-tight shirt, which happen to be completely against the school colors, and that my hair probably looks like it was cut by ramming my head into a cactus repeatedly, and that my face—okay. Maybe they have some right to stare at me.

Insert multiple hand gestures. Yay. Nice looks of disgust now.

But there are definite people that I recognize here, and yet this isn't Sarayashiki Junior High. Hm. Was our old school bulldozed? Or…well, if in fact I've been sleeping for two years, I guess we'd be in about tenth grade now, right? Maybe eleventh?

Shoving through a crowd of people that look like pansies to me, I decide to explore. I guess I'll just blindly look for Keiko. I mean, she must be somewhere in this school. This bright red pansy school. Ugh. At least Sarayashiki had a nice rep. Now there's just a bunch of people that never cut class and are going to spend their lives having kids just like them. Ugh. We need more people like _me_ in this world.

I tap a girl on the shoulder. "Do you know Yukimura Keiko?"

She gives me a weird look. "Are you in the right school?"

I grip her shoulder harder. "Do you know her?"

She grumbles something to herself about hooligans, and mutters, "Are you for real?"

I blink, and walk away from her. Little bitch. If she were a guy, I'd slam her. I continue on, and enter a random classroom that's in session. Everyone turns to look at me. I ask the nearest girl, "Do you know Keiko? Yukimura Keiko?"

"Who are _you_?" The blonde bitch asks rudely.

I huff, leave, and enter a girl's gym class. Again, everyone gives me an almost scared look. I ask no one in particular, "Do you know Keiko?"

"If you need something with her, go to the office!" Another girl snarls. She chucks a dodge ball at my head and hits her target dead on. I have to run out to avoid all the ones to follow.

GWAGH! Are there no guys in this school? It's almost like there's nothing but female bitches. I enter another room, this one dimly lit, and see lots of people chanting. Oh, chorus class. And there's a guy with a cross on his head that's conducting them. I walk right up to him and go, "Do you know Keiko?"

"Young man, you're disturbing our holy purification!" Oh. Religion class. Humph.

Exasperated, I turn to the nearest person…also a girl. Go figure. "Please, can _anyone_ in this school tell me where Keiko is?"

"Keiko who?"

"Yukimura."

"Middle name?"

"I don't know that!"

"Conformation name?"

"I'm not even Catholic, woman!"

I'm pushed out of the room, and at that moment, the entire population in the crowded hallway turns to me, apparently having heard, and at least 20 voices ask in an irritated way, "Then why are you in a Catholic girl's prep school?"

"…That explains things."

"Get out of here, sicko!"

"Yeah, get out! Go pinch panties or whatever somewhere else!"

"I DON'T WANT YOUR UNDERWEAR! I JUST WANT TO KNOW WHERE KEIKO IS!"

"What?" Asks a voice I know. A voice I remember from at least third grade. "Is this Keiko you want, is it me? I heard a rumor about a guy bothering everyone asking for me…"

The crowd parts a little, and I see her. Exactly as she was this morning, although happily, that murderous glint in her eyes is gone. Maybe her glasses hide it. Now she just looks puzzled. Our eyes lock onto each other, and something definitely happens.

She gazes at me, and blinks, staring harder. "Yu—Yusuke?" Her mouth drops open. "Is it really…? Can it be…?"

"YOU HEARD US, GET OUT! KEIKO, HE'LL PROBABLY RAPE YOU! JUST LOOK AT THOSE PANTS! HE'S WEARING GANG COLORS! HE'S DISTURBING PRAYER, TRIED TO TAKE OUR DODGE BALLS, DESTROYING ENGLISH CLASS—" Wow. They really _are_ a bunch of pansies. But, they are all women, after all.

"What do you think you can do to me?" I sneer, a little less confidently as the women all crowd around me in a threatening circle.

Smirks go all around, and with that, a mob of screaming 'pansies' engulfs me, blocking me from Keiko, and shoves me out the door with the force of a rhino. Before I know it, I'm out on my butt, literally, shoved onto the ground outside the school.

"AND DON'T COME BACK, PERV!"

I stand up and try to get beyond them, but am again shoved back, unable to use my arms to defend myself. "DON'T TRY IT!"

"Okay, okay, sheesh!" I hold up my hands, and back away. The girls smirk and return back inside as I make a retreat. Ow…I got beat my Motomoto's gang and now, _literally_, a group of girls. I'll never be able to hold my head up again. I can't even get back inside to see Keiko! Damn. I guess I'll just go by her house later. And besides, it almost looked like she recognized me. Maybe if I go back later, she'll have enough time to think it over.

Maybe I can go find Kurama or something. But I have no idea where he lives…or even if he made it out. Somehow, I was restored to life when I…died. But, how do I know the others made it out like me? Keiko is a totally lost case. I don't know what to think about her. But as for Hiei and Kurama…and Kuwabara. Kuwabara! He's human and I know where he lives!

But…I think he'll be in school…I guess Keiko changed high schools or something when she graduated Sarayashiki, but Kuwabara is too stupid. He must be in the next high school. If only I'd ever gone to school before, I might know where we ended up after junior high…I just kind of figured I would drop out before then…

I know it wasn't just a dream, right? All that…all those things…when I was hit by that car, and met them all. I know I didn't just dream them up, right?

Following the street signs carefully, I turn several sharp corners and arrive at a small apartment building. I take a shortcut clean through it and once out I'm right at that same grungy old house. And there is Shizuru Kuwabara, Kuwabara's own older sister hanging laundry and, not surprisingly, smoking a cigarette.

She gives me a look. "Nice pants, who are you?"

"What is with everyone and the pants?" I grumble. "Shizuru, it's me. You know."

"…"

"Yusuke Urameshi!"

She blinks. "Hm? OH! That boy…that boy that beat my brother silly every other day!"

"Yeah, that's me! I'm back from the dead!"

"Yes." She grows serious. "How is it, adjusting to life two years late?"

"Two years? What do you mean?"

"Well, you were in that coma…"

"…No I wasn't. I just woke up like that for some reason." She gives me a blank look. "Come on! After I won the dark tournament, I…"

"Uh…dark tournament?"

I stare at her. "You foresaw it. Shizuru, you saw it and you alerted us to it."

"What are you talking about?" She asks. "Look…"

"Is Kuwabara around?" I ask, unable to mask the worry in my face.

"Might be. You can go around and check if you like."

I brush past her and climb up the stairs. I call his name a few times, yell a few obscene things, and still no one responds. Until finally, I run into a huge guy dressed in baby blue. Staring up, I can see that familiar stupid mop of orange hair. Wow…I'm almost as tall as him now.

"KUWABARA!" I yell at the top of my lungs.

He looks down at me, his big dumb face showing utmost confusion. "Why are you in my house, and _dude, what is with those pants?_"

"…Will anyone in Tokyo stop looking at the pants and consider my _face_?" I ask, looking up at him expectantly. "Come on, I'm back, and so are you!"

"Are you a burglar?" The Great Stupid asks, thinking it over in his too-small head. "No, but you wouldn't come in broad daylight…"

"Dude, it's me! Yusuke!"

Kuwabara gives me a look of pure terror, and screams. "BUT YOU WERE—I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!"

"I thought _you_ were dead too! All right, we're alive!"

"I THOUGHT IT KILLED YOU! I THOUGHT THE DAMN CAR KILLED YOU! WHY THE HELL ARE YOU BACK?"

"I—Kuwabara, we're alive!"

"I'M GONNA POUND YOU!"

Behold, Kuwabara logic. 'It's confusing me, so let's punch it!' I don't doubt that he'll do a damn good job of it either. Unlike me, when he was brought back to life, he apparently got _ripped._ He's a few inches taller, he looks older, and…did I mention he's a hulk?

He slams a punch for my face, I shove it aside with my arm, and yell, "BUT WE'RE BOTH BACK! YOU SHOULD BE HAPPY WE'RE ALIVE!" But okay. I've been waiting to fight Kuwabara for ages. I slam my fist into his stomach, and seriously, it's like ramming it into a brick wall. I pull back, and go for his teeth. Now _this_ I can do. A one-on-one match with Kuwabara. I might be a bit weaker, but his guard is horrible. That's how I've always won. Always.

I send a knee kick straight to his groin, forcing him down, and then kick his head. This is what I was born to do! More iron punches (well, currently they're punches of teddy bears, but it'll do the job) and strong kicks in the right places, and Kuwabara is laying on the ground, groaning with pain. In ten seconds flat I've won.

"Hah!" Sweet triumph. I love that little 'Hah!' at the end of every good fight. "Now maybe you'll listen to what I have to say! Start talking. How did _you_ escape, if not by reincarnation?"

"…"

"Kuwabara, listen!" I move him with my foot.

"…"

"Oh come on, you are _not_ knocked out! Give me a break, weakling!"

"…"

I hear footsteps coming closer. Uh oh. Shizuru probably won't like all the blood on her floor, so…RUN AWAY!

I'm out the door in seconds, past Shizuru in less. I hurl out of the house, charge out of the entire block, and back into my house, past my drunken mom, and in my room. Wow, 4 minutes and 26 seconds. Not bad.

Damn it? Why did I knock him out? That stupid idiot just had to be explained some things, and then I would have had an ally!

I stare out the tiny window. That's Keiko and Kuwabara out for the day. It looks like about 8:00 on an autumn night. How am I supposed to find Kurama and Hiei now?

Humph. I feel like gambling. Maybe a smoke wouldn't hurt either. The damn spirit world doesn't have cigarettes, and I'm so ready for one. I can always find Kurama and Hiei later.

Too bad I don't remember where it is. Too bad it's almost dark and they'll never let me in.

Well, maybe I can have a drink at my house instead. Mom certainly stocks up.

I head home, tiredly, dragging my feet, pass into my room, dig out my bed, and sit in it. Hm. If there weren't so much smashed glass, it would be almost comfy.

I take the nearest beer bottle and down it hungrily.

"AGH!" I yell, tasting the horrific smell of it. "GROSS!" I almost throw up, and slam the bottle down. Ew! How old was that thing?

I take a second one, and it tastes just as bad, it not worse. Man, it feels like I'm nine again…when I first tried beer, it tasted just that bad…how did I even stand it? And why am I suddenly intolerant?

Disgusted, I lay down across the covers. Maybe I died and this is hell. Where no one knows who I am, I'm wearing a green leotard, I hate beer, and I'm skinny as a dog bone. I can't even fight. Kuwabara doesn't count. I know kittens that fought better battles.

I shut my eyes, wishing for sleep so badly I could burst. Maybe I'll go back to that world that I left, that had no cigarettes, that had demons that were ripe for the killing, that had people I knew.

Sleep comes.

"_THERE'S TOO MANY!" Yusuke yelled frantically to Hiei, firing his spirit gun at the quickly advancing row of demons quickly surrounding the team of him, Hiei, Kurama, Kuwabara, and Genkai. "WE CAN'T FIGHT THEM ALL!"_

"_YUSUKE, WE HAVE TO!" Kuwabara's panicked voice sounded out. "WE HAVE TO LIVE! WE HAVE TO KILL THEM!"_

"_Remember what I taught you, boy." Genkai said harshly, her voice trembling slightly out of fear. "You have to believe that we can win or we'll never get through this!" Genkai trailed off, as her golden energy blasts, usually so deadly, merely greatly angered about three of the beastly creatures with their long whipping tentacles. She continued to attack valiantly. "Help the others! I'm okay!"_

_Yusuke looked for the other 3. Kuwabara, who had yelled moments ago, was nowhere to be seen. Hiei, ever-silent, nodded at him and vanished from his right side and came down upon a single demon about to swallow Genkai, it's gaping mouth wide open, landing on it's head area, narrowly missing the hole. He began to violently slash at it, causing it pain but having no effect. They ferociously wrestled in the air._

_There was a strangled yell from behind him, tearing his attention away. Yusuke whirled around to see Kurama being gripped by a huge slimy tentacle. Kurama, green eyes wide in panic, and missing his rose whip, fired random death plant seeds into the flesh—slime—of the monster, but the seeds were simply absorbed by the demon's power and disintegrated upon impact. Kurama tried to struggle as a last resort, but the slime simply oozed up his thin body and began to cover him. Completely helpless, it inched towards his head and entered through his mouth. Kurama's eyes rolled up in his head._

"_KURAMA!" Yusuke screamed, and fired blue energy blasts into the demon's flesh, but it did about as much as Genkai's did. Nothing. Yusuke kept firing, feeling his strength fading with every blast, but the blasts were still absorbed by the gross yellow creature. It clenched Kurama hard, dropping his broken, severely slimed body on the ground, and turned toward Yusuke. Yusuke's blasts dimmed in power as he began to run out of spirit energy._

_Yusuke felt something slimy wrap around him from behind. In the midst of the chaos, he had forgotten his own guard. The slime shot up him and slid inside his mouth as he opened it to scream for something to help, making him violently sick as it oozed down his throat, suffocating him…_

_It was over. They had truly, finally lost. Yusuke shut his eyes and waited for death…_

_And then…there was something new. A light in the distance. A circular sphere of blue light, that seemed almost like a portal of some kind. Yusuke felt his eyes slowly being shredded, and all he could see was that blue light. He felt it calling, he felt himself dying, but he could still see the light…_

"_YUSUKE!" The light screamed at him. And then, he could see no more._

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**I'm sorry at how slow this is moving…truly I am…hopefully this BLAH-ness won't continue more than 10 more chapters…**


	5. Chapter 5

Sorry for the wait, everyone, totally my fault. I finally got me some inspiration! Please enjoy!

**Chapter 5**

I awaken, and naturally, I have no new answers for what's just happened to me. My god, I have such a bad hangover. And I had, like, one beer bottle? Two? What's _wrong_ with me? Why does even sweet alcohol reject me? First my pseudo-girlfriend Keiko is locked up in a prison of a school and I can't even see her, and then Kuwabara tries to beat the living shit out of me, _and_ I can't even drink beer.

Ugh.

I stand up, pull out my wedgy, and stretch. I can hear my mom's soaps playing from the other room. Sure enough, there she is, just sitting there, staring at the TV, with a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other.

Wow. I just realized that I have nothing more to do now than my mom does. I mean, what am I supposed to do? Kurama and Hiei aren't, per se, neighborhood kids, and I can't even manage to find the only other person that might know me.

And I have no idea how to contact Koenma and Botan. God. Why can't I even figure out what I have to do?

I glare down at my feet in the too-small shoes. Well, that's always a start. I can always get out of these tight clothes and stop coming across as bad-boy-turned-gay to the general public. Sheesh.

I walk out the door and onto the street, feeling even more insecure about my huge hands and feet and the way they stick out of my clothes like buck teeth stuck out of this one kid's mouth that I beat up once. A very long time ago. I wonder, can I even still manage to beat up someone? I mean, Daisuke Motomoto's gang utterly made mincemeat out of me. Kuwabara doesn't count, his guard is terrible and a child could cream him.

How am I ever going to get used to being a good boy? I mean, I can't beat anyone up. I'm going to _die_ if I can't beat anyone up!

That's it.

I have to die.

Oh my god. I have to get myself killed by a car again. And then Botan will pick me up and take me back where I belong.

I have to kill myself. That's the only way to escape being stuck as a goody-two-shoes for life. And it's a risk I'm willing to take.

I stop dead in my tracks, not two feet outside my home. I turn towards the street, blood pounding in my ears. Readying myself for that final, desperate attempt, I prepare to dive into the road.

_Just picture that child._

I can see him so clearly, the little boy playing with that little red ball, running after it into the street, the car with the distracted drivers playing incredibly loud music, pushing him out of the way to save his life, seeing the front end of the car roaring up towards me, watching my dead body from above, seeing my wake, Takanaka respecting my death—

"What's wrong?"

It takes a few seconds for my brain to let me know I've heard a small voice, down by my side. The tunnel vision disappears, the horrible pulse relaxes, and the panic of that moment vanishes.

I turn my head so slowly that my neck cracks.

All I see is a little girl, just standing down there. She has unusual blue-grey eyes that you almost never see in Japan, as well as the usual straight black hair and smooth skin. Very usual girl. I would guess her at about seven or eight years old.

"What's wrong?" She repeats, in a strange voice, a little bit deep for her age, but still having the qualities of a child thrown in there.

"Nothing. Scram." I grunt, turning my head away back towards the street, trying to feel that confusion of the moment of my death, trying to relive the panic.

It doesn't come. I can't do it.

I just stand there, frozen for a second, rage rising in my chest at my missed chance. All because of a small child. A small, stupid child.

I turn my head and she's no longer there. Must have taken my advice about scramming.

Humph. I glare back at the street and all the cars flying by, and wishing one of them would be my death.

I need to find that casino. I need to forget that all this ever happened. I wrench my gaze away from the street and continue walking next to the houses, before I realize that I have no money. The pockets of my too-short pants are totally empty. I couldn't even buy new pants of I wanted to.

And I can't steal or extort money off anyone! Because I'm too freaking weak!

Agh. I need to die. I truly, truly want to die. There must be some other way I can kill myself than jumping into a line of traffic. Maybe…maybe I can slash my own neck?

But I have nothing to slash with. Can't buy a knife or anything…

Jumping off of a roof. That's exactly what I'll do. I'll find the highest roof in the neighborhood, and jump right into death's arms.

Wait, why do I want to die again?

Ugh. So I can meet up with Koenma and Botan again. Man, my own stupidity scares me sometimes.

But…before that…

CASINO! OH MY GOD, THAT'S THE CASINO!

I run to its flashing lights in glory. I'll find some way to get some playing coins. I'll find some way. I'll beg money for a whole day if it means I can play some slots.

I run up to the front doors, when a flash of movement catches the corner of my eye. I whirl to my right and see nothing. Wait. There it is again.

Leaving the doors of the casino I know so well, I creep down towards it. If it's a demon…oh, god, if only it were a demon. Please, Buddha, let there be a demon. I would be so much less creeped out if my own world came back to me.

I sneak down along the edge of the brick building, and peer around the alley corner where I saw it. All I see are huge black bags of trash, the places I used to go smoking.

CIGARETTES!

I glance around one last time for the shadow or whatever it was, and change my mind and whirl around, ready to get back to the street, before I see some clothes. Just lying in the dumpster over there.

Score! I run over and pull them out. They smell like shit, but they're baggy and green! Well, not naturally green, but green nonetheless! And they're not made for a 12-year-old, always a good thing! I strip and tug them on, marveling at the stink but how well they fit. I find a pair of loose flip-flops, and nearly have a heart attack when I slip on a banana peel and nearly crack my head open.

If I could only see myself now. I bet I look awesome. A nice baggy deep-green velvet jacket, light green polyester pants, and of course, the flip-flops, that while greasy are very much bearable. Yes!

I strut out of the alley. Wait…what was I going to do again? Nothing calls it back into my head. Hm, I wonder. I think it was important…

What the hell. Now, I'm just gonna enjoy myself.

I turn back to the casino, before yet another thing distracts me from my fun. I see that weird zippy shadow again, but my eyes focus on a girl with short brown hair. Keiko.

She must be out of school. Who knew the casino and that prep school were so close together?

She's still in the same dorky red uniform with her hair pulled back into pigtails with red clips. She always was a nerd. She's cute for a nerd, actually; she wears that uniform well. But…together, we can escape from this nightmare that won't end.

I sprint down to the school, and lose sight of her in the crowd. Ah…but I just saw her…oh, there she is. Talking with that ugly Natsumi girl and the blonde one. She should hang out with my crowd more often. But…there she is…there she's not…

I charge to her, and grab her shoulder, shaking her a little bit in the process. She turns around, and stares into my eyes for several seconds. No, there was no kiss. She just opens her mouth in surprise, and I yell, "KEIKO!" And I actually hug her in front of all these people.

She just gives a gasp of surprise, and her blonde friend goes all, "Eww."

"Yusuke?" She asks quietly. "What's wrong?"

"I'm so happy to see you!" I let go of her, feeling embarrassed. "Finally, someone that actually recognizes me! You have no idea how good that feels! What do you say we get out of here, huh?"

Keiko gives me a look and nods slowly. Natsumi rolls her eyes, and she and Blondie strut away.

I grab her wrist and drag her out of the throng of nerdy nerds, and she keeps up beside me. I let go of her wrist, and she walks with me for a long while, just feeling happy.

Wow. She's grown a lot. And not just in height. Was she always like that? Did I just not notice? Hm…it certainly suits her…maybe this calls for an innuendo?

"So…how are you, Yusuke?" She says, before I can speak. "It's nice to see you again."

"Yeah, you too." I give her a look. "Want to just walk around?"

"Eh…sure…" She stares at my clothes, and her eyes widen in shock. "Oh my god, your mother threw you out of the house, didn't she."

"What?"

"Where have you been living for the past week, Yusuke? Oh, I _knew_ you were homeless, I just knew it. I'm sorry, Yusuke, couldn't you find someone to stay with you?"

"No, I have no friends."

She laughs. "Well, you have me. I mean…" She reddens. "You can't move in with me or anything like that. That would weird me out. I just think…isn't there a motel for you?"

I just look away from her, suddenly struck by the awkwardness of the situation. I stare intensely at a little dog over on an apartment porch swing.

"Why did you come to see me at my school?" She asks after a long silence.

"What? I mean, I just really wanted to see you. To get this all sorted out."

"Get what sorted out? Oh, Yusuke, do you really mean…?"

"Why are you looking at me like that? What? No! No, no, no! Not that, oh god no, I just meant to get back to the spirit world."

"To the what?" She asks, looking hurt.

I give her a look. "You know. The spirit world. You know."

She returns my gaze with a question in her eye. "No, I don't. But it doesn't matter."

_Doesn't matter?_

"I think…I think it would be best if you and I had some tea first, you know, just to talk over the more important matters." She smiles.

The color drains from my face in a second. She doesn't know. She doesn't know anything about the spirit world.

"Come for tea. Come on, I know you want to."

"No…" I say. "No." I repeat. "No, no, no, no, no, why is this happening to me? Why?"

With that, I turn from her and run down the street, panic circulating through my veins. What's happened? What's wrong with me? What did I do to deserve this?

"Yusuke?" She calls.

Somehow, even my best friend doesn't remember all that happened. Her mind, like all the others, are gone.

"WHAT'S WROOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG?" I scream into the setting sun, casting a red glow all around me. "WHAT'S WROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG?"

I get no answer.

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**I'm sorry this story is moving so incredibly fast, but I want to show that Yusuke really is a boy that does whatever thing comes into his head, a really whimsical person. Whenever he gets an Idea, he acts on that Idea, and I've tried to make that come alive here. Man, Yusuke's character is certainly hard to write…**

**Please review!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

"WHAT'S WROOOONG????"

It would be so nice if I could run. Run, run, run, and never look back. I wish I didn't exist, that I could just run away from my body, from this town, from my mind, from myself. Tearing down the street with only the hiss of my blood in my ears, I'm not able to go as fast as I used to. Through nearly blinded eyes, I can see spaghetti-string legs winding around each other, back and forth, trying to go as fast as they used to. I feel like a gazelle getting chased by a cheetah, an _invisible_ cheetah that wants to make the gazelle suffer beforehand, so that it can fully enjoy the final kill.

You can tell I'm upset when I start waxing poetic. Seriously.

My body keeps getting heavier, and my eyes are starting to feel very drippy. I can't see, I can't hear, I can't feel, there's only me and my thoughts, me and my thoughts. It's horrid. I can only hear my own mind go around in circles, revisiting the same unanswerable questions with new ridiculous answers.

My mom thinks I was in a coma for two years, and I can't find anyone who remembers the Spirit World. Kuwabara still only sees me as Yusuke Urameshi, top punk of Sarayashiki Junior High, and he's _graduated_ from junior high already. He's the same dumbass punk he always was. Shizuru doesn't have any psychic spirit powers, and she's afraid of me.

And Keiko…

I stumble suddenly and fall flat on my face, glued to the pavement of Ookami Street. Maybe I'll just stay glued here. What would be so wrong with that? I could just lie here, lie here, lie here, never getting up, just staying low, listening to the thoughts that won't come out, wishing I could die, dying…

"What's _wrong_, what's _wrong_, what's _wrong_…?" I start mumbling, babbling, full of rage and hate and confusion and sadness and confusion and sadness and rage and pain and confusion and oh, it's all gone wrong, it's all wrong, there's nothing I can do anymore, there's no point in trying, not if Keiko's lost her mind too…

I raise a fist and beat it on the ground, feeling flecks of granite embed themselves into the side of my hand. I try to scream. Nothing comes. It becomes a rhythm…beat, wonder, beat, wonder, beat, wonder, beatwonderbeatwonderbeatwonder…

I can hear a horn blast in front of my body, momentarily distracting me. I raise my head a little to make eye contact with a huge blue Bud Lite truck. What I wouldn't kill to be in that truck right now. Raising my head a little further, I can see a balding driver looking down on me with an odd expression, one of mixed disgust, fear, and worry. I guess he must be confused to see a random kid in too-short green pants lying facedown in the middle of the expressway, which he is beating as though it's the pavement's fault that his life is such a mess.

Join the club.

Enjoying a moment of odd clarity, I roll over to the side of the street, cutting up my skin with all the pavement stones, my mind working furiously. As thinking has never been my strong point, it's bound not to help much. Not when it revolves around cigarettes and booze.

As I'm dragging myself on my butt to rest against a nearby building, the truck rumbles past and the driver gives me the finger. But it's what's on the other side of the street that really grabs my attention.

It's a girl, and she's staring intently at me; and it's not one of those normal stares where you just happen to slap your gaze on somebody by chance. It's like she's looking right through me. I give her a nasty look and try to look away, when I see that I can't move a muscle at all.

It's oddly familiar.

With a burst of recollection, I realize that it has to be her, the very same girl that was there when I was going to kill myself in traffic. It's gotta be her, with those blue eyes, those weird eyes. The memory comes back to me, in a hazy way. I'd been so ready to kill myself after I hadn't been able to get through to Keiko. I was so ready to throw it all away. In slow motion, I'd seen the car coming up the road, and I'd taken a step out into the street to end it all. And something made me turn my head and see that girl right next to me. And I couldn't end my life. And it wasn't like I didn't want to end my life, it was that I literally couldn't. I couldn't move. I couldn't do anything.

I've never in my life been able to _not_ do anything.

Not unless there's a demon involved, that is.

I return the girl's stare, equally as hard, scrutinizing her. She looks human enough, but she has to be a demon. She has to be the one that ripped me away from the demons and brought me here. She brought me here so she could kill me slowly, so she could destroy me inside and out.

She mouths, "What's wrong?" and then turns abruptly down a nearby alley.

Just like the first time. She froze time for me, just me, asked me what was wrong, and then she vanished.

But not this time. This time, she's not getting away.

I stand up, wincing with the pain but with a newfound purpose. I trail her, cursing my inability to sense her inevitable demon energy. I turn down the same alley, which is still packed with people. In the throng, I can't see her anywhere. Grabbing all small girls by the hair, looking into their faces, and earning yells from their mothers and fathers proves to be fruitless. I get more and more worried as I continue down the alley.

It's a dead end at the back of the alley, with only a couple hundred bags full of trash, none of them big enough for a girl to hide in. I start digging through the pile, seeing and feeling nothing but old banana peels and candy wrappers. I search for who knows how long, before cursing myself and my stupidity.

I turn to leave before I catch something out of the corner of my eye. A little dart of black. As I turn to look at it, I see nothing but old soup cans.

And I remember. I saw a shadow, a little finger of blackness, right next to the casino when I tried to go in. And when I looked, I could see nothing. Staring at the exact spot, I see it again. The shadow, flickering and waving at me in a very ominous way.

Could the girl and the shadow be the same thing? Watching, waiting, always ready to spring?

Are they both _the invisible cheetah????_

I edge toward the little flickering thing, tensing for whatever danger might await. I have no spirit power, so I can't win, but I have to at least know who she is before I die…

For some reason, I become acutely aware of how pinched my feet are in my shoes. I try to shake it off and get still closer.

I nearly scream when she appears out of nowhere, out of the shadow itself.

Somehow, she looks more terrifying now. Her already pale skin has turned a luminous white, so white that she's actually shining out of the darkness. And those eyes are burning so hard, right at me, staring and holding me in place. She's not, she can't be human.

I try to move, and I can't.

I see that she's preparing for a fight. Her teeth are bared, her fists are clenched, and her eyes are small electric blue slits in her face. But she's also either afraid or enraged. She's shaking all over, quivering with some emotion that I don't know.

She whispers it again, but not as a question rather than a statement.

"What's wrong."

Nothing is said for a long moment, while I stare at her eyes, her blue eyes, wondering why exactly I was so stupid to believe that she wouldn't just freeze me again.

Her girlish voice suddenly rises to a feral snarl.

"What's wrong indeed."

The alley, the town, the world around us melts into darkness.


End file.
